Saturday, July 16, 2011

Grizzly R&D Part III

Regular readers of this blog may be forgiven for getting the impression that the Bianchi Grizzly project has gone into hibernation. The Griz is still in development, but the progress has been quite slow recently. Here is what it looks like at the moment:

You can see that my new MKS MT Lux Comp MTB pedals have arrived. They seem quite stout while remaining fairly svelte on the scale at 305g.

Currently, all that is left to get on the road is hooking up some cables & chain, then going over the bike making sure everything is tightened and adjusted. I'm really growing fond of the white saddle/maroon drop bar look.

For now, I got the bright idea of using some Suntour stem shifters, this was the cheapest, easiest solution I had on hand. They may well work out functionallly, allowing a lot of heads up riding on an urban/rail-trail bomber. Stem shifters do require an utter disregard for the cycle fashion polizei, so you have to be secure in your manhood (cyclist-hood?) to roll with these:

Note the braided steel brake cable housing in the picture above. It may seem that I have an endless supply of this stuff, but in truth it is almost all gone. As a tip, the best way to cut this stuff is with a hacksaw, I find.

Neato brake wire carriers which haven't disappeared into the maws of ebay:

Things are shaping up nicely for this bike. I'll stick with the lugged tires for first sea trials, probably go with something with a centerline eventually. Decisions remain for fenders, racks, lights, etc.